Summer re-cap

I can't believe it's already late September! The summer passed so quickly, and now it's officially fall; this week we had highs of 12 degs and I had to pull-out my winter coat. But here is a little bit of summer nostalgia to re-cap the great times:

Sarnen hat tournament: this is a wonderful small little tournament in Switzerland with the perfect location. It's set in the mountains next to a crystal clear lake and we were blessed by at least one day of gorgeous summer weather, so you could go jump into the lake after every game. It was also the most well-organised tournament I've ever been to (I always received a text message saying which field I was playing at and when, which was especially useful on Saturday night for figuring out how late to party and still get 5 hours of sleep). And somehow the Swiss seem to be super organised and still so laid back!


Hangin' out with friends in the sun after games on Saturday.
I also participated in my institute's mini-triathlon (250 m swim, 16 km bike, 3 km run). It was fun although my cycling skills aren't the best and I also had a super-heavy women's city-bike with a basket next to everyone else's road-racing-bikes. No matter, I didn't finish last, and was the first woman to cross the finish line (...out of 2).

Mass swim start. I think the brownish arm third from the left belongs to me.

It was also possible to do the race in teams. This is my co-worker Rafael cheering on his swimming partner and itching to get biking:

Finishing certificate at the BBQ afterwards:

The Europeans Championships for soccer also figured prominently in Germany this summer. Germany made it to the finals after narrowly winning an exciting quarter-final against Portugal and semi-final against Turkey, and lost to a very strong Spanish team in the final. Here I am geared up with my team Deustschland shirt and face paint before a big game.


I also managed to get out and do some hiking this summer with Valentina, a funky Italian girl I met in German class a few years ago. One particular hike took us through a steep mountain meadow with free-ranging cows and horses who were super friendly.

In Germany there is always a cross to mark the summit, and only after eating lunch and signing the book have can you claim to have made it to the top.



At the top we were rewarded with gorgeous views.


And at bottom after a steep descent, an idyllic village:

To end the summer ultimate friends of mine organised a BBQ on the Isar, the main river flowing through Munich. It's a little different than traditional North-American BBQs. For one thing this stretch of the river is FFK (Frei-Körper-Kultur or Free Body Culture, i.e. clothing optional), so there were lots of random naked people wandering by the entire time. Secondly people don't have fancy propane BBQs. We do it the old fashioned way with coal and a tiny little grill to feed a few dozen people.

Our spot:

Our humble grill:
No fridge; but the river keeps the beer cool



My captain Sara and her cool rock-star sunglasses. Plus some shots of other friends.

Edinburgh and Newcastle

In mid-August I visited Fiona and Barry in Newcastle, where they were just finishing up a year abroad doing a post-doc and an MBA, respectively. In this case "just finishing up" meant them moving out of their place on the Wed after my weekend visit (they were far too gracious to mention this advance!). This is just one of the many times I was impressed by their easy-goingness and supreme organizational skills.

Things didn't start out as peachy as I had hoped for my trip, but at least there was a happy ending. There are no direct flights to Newcastle and I had planned to fly Munich->Düsseldorf->Newcastle, my first flight leaving at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am which meant I had to get up in the middle of the night to be at the airport on time. I was flying carry-on to prevent any mishaps with lost luggage (alas; this meant no tasty German BEvERages to bring for my hosts given liquid-and-gels-restrictions), and half-asleep, trying to find my gate number on the huge departures board I realized my Munich-Düsseldorf leg had been cancelled for "technical reasons" which they refused to explain any further. The nice man at the Lufthansa ticket centre explained that my options were to (a) take a much later flight to Düsseldorf and the second of only 2 flights to Newcastle a day, arriving at 8 pm, which was an unfathomable +14 hours away or (b) fly to Frankfurt then on to Edinburgh for early afternoon, approximately 180 km from Newcastle and find my own way there. I decided on option (b).

A sign I never expected to see after an unexpected detour to Scotland.

Fiona and Barry were great though and showed extreme flexibility despite last-minute changes, deciding to book a B&B for us all in Edinburgh (no easy feat given the very popular Fringe Festival going at the moment) , driving the 180 km to Edinburgh and picking me up from the airport. Thanks again guys! So there I found myself in the land of Braveheart, haggis, kilts and people with really cool accents with fellow Calgarians Fiona and Barry.

Fringe Festival performers convincing people to come see their show later in the evening. It's incredible since these people aren't just actors, but do their own marketing, PR, props, costumes, make-up.

The best street performer we saw on the weekend; this guy did amazing acrobatics/strength/balancing acts on this pole which is supported only by four tethers held by audience members!

Sir Walter Scott commemorative statue

Scottish Parliament


This made me think one thing: Aslan

Fiona was six months pregnant and had been a great sport walking around all over the place with Barry and I, but decided to opt out of a hike up to Arthur's Seat, the peak in the centre of Edinburgh.


Lots of great views at the top although it was a little windy!


View of Edinburgh castle

I really enjoyed all the great ales and ciders they have in England and Scotland. Before heading off back to Newcastle I enjoyed a tasty traditional Scottish meal of turnips, taters and haggis.

(OK, I have a confession to make; my haggis was vegetarian, but I did try Barry's real one.)

On the way back to Newcastle we stopped off at Bamburgh castle. It's right on the coast with breathtaking views. I love the sandy beach which gives way to undulating grassy mounds which lead up to the castle.

Back in Newcastle we enjoyed tasty authentic Indian-takeout, took-in a football game at the pub on Sunday and wandered around Newcastle downtown.

The Newcastle Millenium bridge in the middle of its fancy tilting manoeuvre.

Fiona and Barry were great hosts - thanks for your generosity guys and I hope you are enjoying being back in Calgary for the fall!

Family visit to Munich

At the beginning of July my parents came to Germany for their first visit since touring the world in their early twenties. It was nice to finally show them life in Munich including bier gartens, the Alps, and my pint-sized apartment. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate the entire time (sorry!) but I hope they had a nice time anyway. At the end of the visit my Tauji (uncle on my father's side) from India came - his first time ever outside of India! And even though he took a few German courses nearly half a century ago, he still managed to communicate. Hats off to him. Unfortunately my Mom took all of the pictures, but she was there too, believe me.

We had lunch with a distantly-related family friend living in Augsburg. Look - my father is actually smiling in this picture - no small feat.


These were taken on a trip to Schloss Linderhof, one of the 3 castles built by crazy King Ludwig II who bankrupted Bavaria with his love of castles built in hard-to-get-to places in the Alps. Unfortunately it poured the entire time, but was still picturesque.



My father wasn't too impressed by Ludwig's Taj Mahal, but imitation is the highest form of flattery right?

Finally a respite from the rain! This is the Venus Grotto, a custom built cave for Ludwig II to see Wagner's Tannhäuser opera, in which large parts of the action are set in a cave. The water is the stage and where the seats would normally be sits the orchestra. There is only one real seat which is, naturally, for the king. Supposedly it took days to heat in the winter and was one of the first buildings in Germany to use electric light bulbs. In the photo below you can only see the stage. I'd hate to have to rehearsals knee deep in water though.

My Mom liked the sheep on the side of the road we saw on the way back. The waterfall in the background is also pretty.



Finally some decent Munich weather to enjoy my local (50 m from my apartment!) biergarten. Prost!

Kletterwald (High ropes course)

This is just a short post on a very enjoyable institute-sanctioned field trip we had at my work. Basically it's supposed to be about spending time outside with your colleagues and developing friendships that will serve you well at work without all of the funny team-building exercises. It's also about having fun and ending the afternoon in a biergarten having worked up an appetite and feeling thirsty.

There were multiple options available, but I signed up for the Kletterwald outing (literally means climbing-forest, but is a ropes course through the trees). It was a ton of fun, a little bit of exercise and a great
test of balance and nerves.

A play on words for the name of the place. Those clever Germans!

A preview of part of the course:



Probably the most challenging parts were climbing up and down two hanging rope ladders. I wasn't lucky enough to have someone holding the bottom for me though!



This part was exhilarating; you step off a platform and are in freefall for a fraction of a second before swinging into this net which you have to grab a hold of. (That's me by the way)


More fun and rappelling down at the end of one section.

Füssen, Allgäu (Bavaria)

Well, this post was supposed to have been called “my fabulous Portugal vacation”, but after the disappointing loss of my passport not to mention everything else in my wallet I had to opt for a few days off closer to home. After three days of running around taking care of the bureaucratic mess (“Papierkram” in German) and many expensive phone calls to Canada and Portugal later, I could do nothing but wait for things to trickle in, in the coming weeks. Rather than (a) go back to work and lose my vacation days or (b) sit at home, I convinced Jeff - who was there for a visit - to come camping and it was great!

The weather was gorgeous, I got to watch a few extra German European Cup games with the home crowd, and got lots of hiking, biking shorebird watching and good food in (including Allgäuer Käsespätzle which is a kind of deluxe macaroni and cheese). It was one of those not-overly planned trips where we hopped off the train, found the info centre and randomly picked one of the two campsites accessible by public transportation, which meant a bus four times a day. Normally everyone who comes to Füssen does a simple day-trip to Neuschwanstein, the tourist-overrun castle which inspired Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom. My favourite moment came while getting on the bus with my backpack to the tiny town with the campsite. The bus driver immediately started yelling the only English she knew I think: “No castle! No castle!”. At least she seemed embarrassed when I told her in perfect German that I wasn’t interested in going to the castle but to the campsite.

Check-out the view from the campsite; you can even see the castle!

In the other direction was the lake, which I snapped a few pictures of during sunrise at 5 am (I just happened to have to use the facilities at the right time).

While waiting for the bus we killed time wandering around the quaint little town of Füssen. This is city hall (the “Rathaus”) with a view of the Alps in the background.

Think these “Schneeballe” (snowballs) look good? We thought so but they were shockingly bad - just deep-fried-dough tastes-like-nothing-but-oil with some cheap chocolate on top. Let this be my warning to you!

Neuschwanstein from the Marienbrücke (Marion’s bridge).

This was kind a random place we stumbled upon with our rental bikes. It’s the “path of the senses”. The idea is you walk around the path with bare feet, feeling and internalising the textures of the different surfaces beneath your feet. I think I’m too much of a wimp; I thought most of path was waaaay too sharp, especially the broken-glass stuff in blue!

Part deux of the foot senses path: step through progressive buckets of mud, clay, and some substance I couldn’t identify. Maybe it’s hard to read the expression on my face but I’m not really relishing the experience.

For distraction after the poky-path and mud-bath we checked out junior ski jumpers training on grass which was kind of cool to see.